What We Really Miss about the 1950s, by Stephanie Coontz, is an article
that talks about the great era of the 1950s. Although many people would like to
go back to this time period, they don’t really understand what was happening.
Coontz argues that this was the era of racism, sexism, and inequality. When you
think about the 1950s you think about a perfect little family that consists of
a hardworking father, a housewife, and usually two children. Well Coontz explains
to us that these women didn’t have a choice. Many people believed that women
were supposed to stay at home and take care of the family, and this idea was
portrayed through the media. In a famous
TV series one of the characters ask the women, “Are you after a job or a man?
You can’t have both.” Women had to be dependant of a man, and if they went to
work they would be mistreated by the male employees and wouldn’t receive the
same benefits they did. The rate of teenage pregnancy was high in the 1950s and
many couples would get married before the baby was born and their life was
settled. The father would go to work and the mother had to stay at home and it didn’t
matter if the couple was happy or not. People
who were defined as “Other” which consisted of blacks, Jews, gays or lesbians,
and Puerto Ricans were treated with hostility and riots against them emerged
every day. Although the 1950s did have its downfall, this was the era where
parents had hope for their children because many people didn’t have to have a
college education to get a well paid job and they could afford to be
economically stable.
Some of the concepts are present in
the musical, Next to Normal. First of all Diana seems to fit the
description of a women during the 1950s. She’s a stay at home mom, who looks
after her two kids, Gabe and Natalie, and was married at young age. Throughout
the play we can see that she’s unhappy but she usually puts her own feelings
aside to try and please her husband and kids. She continues to live with them
because she would rather keep her family happy then explains to them how she
really feels. After she goes through electro shock therapy it seems that she
has gained a new confidence. She realizes that the reason she married Dan was
because they were young and she was having a baby. She realizes that she was a child and her decisions
were rushed. I also think that second half shows women in today’s era because she
gains confidence to leave her family. She tells Dan that if he’s always there
to catch her, she will never learn to stand on her own. In today’s society
women are independent, even if they’re married and they have the same rights
men do. In the 1950s, you were always tied down to a man and women never seemed
to leave the men to go find their happiness because they were aware of
injustices towards women. Once Diana learns she has a voice, and she’s allowed
to express her feelings she packs her bags because she’s tired of feeling
vulnerable she wants to feel independent. (word
count 550)
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